Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 — hands-on report

For the first time ever, Call of Duty fans are getting back-to-back Black Ops games with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 this year. Leaping ahead to the future of 2035, the game is a direct sequel to the story told in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 — but what’s really interesting is the way it builds on the foundation set by Black Ops 6, with its introduction of systems like Omnimovement and the return of round-based Zombies.

At Call of Duty: Next, I got a chance to jump into the combat boots of David Mason and a few other operators. I played on six new Multiplayer maps, tried out the updated Omnimovement, cleared Zombies off the new Wonder Vehicle, and picked a few dropzones on Warzone’s new Resurgence map and updated Verdansk.

You can check out just about everything we saw (and a few more things) in Black Ops 7’s open beta, which launches on October 5 if you pre-ordered the game, and on October 7 for all players.

Without further ado, let’s get to all the juicy hands-on action.

Gameplay Evolution

Even Omni-er Omnimovement: Treyarch is building on the foundation it established with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 last year, making a few tweaks and adjustments to the Omnimovement system that allows you to run, slide, and dive in any direction. The big one is wall-jumping—you can now fling yourself into the air with a wall jump to bounce around corners, cross gaps, and confuse opponents. You can chain up to three jumps together, but each jump will cost you some momentum. Other additions include moving while mounted and a new finisher that lets you attach a grenade to another player and kick them toward their friends.

Movement as a loadout option: While Omnimovement still offers a lot of agility to every player, Treyarch has made some adjustments to the system by turning a few elements into Perks. The double-time Tac Sprint, for instance, now requires a specific Perk and comes with the trade-off that your normal sprint is slower when you equip it. But other Perks boost movement too, like Lightweight, which increases your movement speed and lets you slide and dive farther, and Dexterity, which lets you reload faster and aim down sights during dives and slides.

Overclock your stuff: Getting good at nailing enemies with frag grenades while they’re flocking to the hard point? In Black Ops 7, successfully using items like equipment, Scorestreaks, and Field Upgrades builds up progress that allows you to Overclock those items, unlocking an upgrade that makes them more powerful. You can choose your Overclocks when you select your loadout, with each Scorestreak, Field Upgrade, and piece of equipment offering two possibilities, allowing you to tailor your preferred playstyle.

Become a Hybrid Combat Specialist: In Black Ops 6, choosing three Perks of the same type unlocked a Combat Specialist bonus that amped up a specific playstyle. Black Ops 7 gives you a little more freedom; you can now mix two of one type of Perk with one of another to unlock a Hybrid Combat Specialist bonus, so you can mix and match a little more and still get useful benefits.

Near-future technology: Black Ops 7’s setting in the 2030s brings some new robotic and drone threats that you can deploy in battle as Scorestreaks. The D.A.W.G. is a dog-like combat robot; the Rhino is Treyarch’s take on the Juggernaut, a robot wielding a minigun you pilot into battle; HKVs are Hunter-Killer Drones that are deployed from aircraft and seek out targets once they hit the ground; and the VOTL Warship returns from Black Ops 2 with some new upgrades to terrorize from the skies.

Share the load(out): Ever wonder what weapon and Perks the person who just took you out was using? You can see the loadouts of opponents on the Kill Cam, and in the launch version of the game, you’ll actually be able to nab their Gunsmith customizations for yourself. Gunsmith codes will let you share your weapon builds with friends or online, so if you ever see a gun you wish you were taking into battle, you can have it.

Guns—lots of guns: Black Ops 7 will bring 30 new weapons compared to Black Ops 6, and thanks to its near-future setting, that’ll include 16 that are all-new to the franchise.

Multiplayer

Black Ops 7 will launch with 18 multiplayer maps—15 new 6-on-6 maps, plus three remastered maps from previous games, and two large-scale 20-vs.-20. I fought across six of the new maps, which will appear in Black Ops 7’s multiplayer beta.

Maps

Blackheart — Round and floating, Blackheart is a lot like a small oil rig, laid out like a wheel. At the center is a room where teams converge for big fights, while the outer edges have longer sight lines for sniping and setting ambushes.

Toshin — A Japanese cityscape with lots of small interiors, tight corners, and crashed cars and trains that can be useful for cover, or might explode at the wrong moment. There are numerous ways to slip between locations in Toshin, provided you can find the right vent or elevator shaft.

The Forge — The paramilitary organization known as The Guild also appears to be a corporate entity that enjoys showcasing and selling its robotics and drone technology. The Forge is a facility that serves as a testing ground on the outside and a sleek showroom on the inside.

Exposure — Set near a series of solar panels, Exposure is something of a prefabricated industrial site where you can clamber over buildings and slip between structures for ambushes.

Cortex — Cortex gives off heavy supervillain lab vibes, with lots of spooky-looking tubes and panels to use as cover. It’s a map with exteriors that loop around a series of interior pathways, providing multiple ways to approach a given objective.

Imprint — A snowy mountain fortress, Imprint combines open exterior spaces with sparse cover, and tighter interior corridors and vertical areas where it pays to be aware of your surroundings..

Modes

In addition to a few classic Call of Duty modes—Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Hardpoint—I also tried the new Overload mode at Connect. In the beta, you can also expect to play Kill Confirmed and Search and Destroy.

Overload — A new 6-vs.-6 mode, Overload, creates some frantic dashes, big team fights, and huge momentum swings. Two teams attempt to grab an overload device, and once one team has it, their goal is to reach one of two designated locations on the opposing team’s side of the map. If they can carry the device to one of the designated spots, they score a point; however, if the device is dropped, the other team can pick it up. As soon as a point is scored, the device respawns somewhere in the middle of the map, triggering another mad dash to grab it.

Skirmish — We didn’t play it, but at launch, Black Ops 7 also offers a massive new 20-vs.-20 mode that has its own dedicated maps to give you plenty of room to mix it up.

Zombies

In Black Ops 7, Treyarch builds on last year’s return of round-based Zombies with new maps and modes, along with new monsters to threaten you along the way.

Ashes of the Damned — The new map available at launch is the biggest Call of Duty has ever seen. It’s comprised of multiple locations to navigate and explore. They’re all linked together by roads, but between each of the main areas is a dense, deadly fog you’ll need to cross.

Meet Ol’ Tessie — To get around in Ashes of the Damned, you’ll need a ride, and that’s the new “Wonder Vehicle,” Ol’ Tessie. The truck starts as a bit of a clunker, but you can repair and upgrade it to turn it into a proper zombie-smashing crew transport—and even install a Pack-a-Punch Machine in the truck bed. You’ll need Ol’ Tessie to be tough, since the fog is home to unkillable zombies, as well as gremlin-like Ravagers that will attack your vehicle.

New ways to play — Zombies adds two new modes in Black Ops 7 that we didn’t play at Connect: Survival and Cursed. Survival mode takes place on smaller maps—in the beta, you’ll see locations taken from Ashes of the Damned—to provide a quicker, more frantic Zombies experience that still includes uncovering secrets while you fight for your life. And for the really hardcore Zombies fans, Cursed mode will offer an even steeper challenge.

Warzone

Haven’s Hollow: A new Resurgence map, Haven’s Hollow is set in Appalachia and draws inspiration from the Zombies maps Shattered Veil and Liberty Falls—before the undead ravaged the latter. The map features nine Points of Interest, including open fields at one end and a small but densely populated town at the other, with numerous buildings to hide in and rooftops to snipe from.

Updated Verdansk: Two Points of Interest are coming in Black Ops 7’s first season—the all-new Signal Station, and a remastered version of the Factory.

Try Multiplayer and Zombies in the Black Ops 7 Beta

Players who pre-order Black Ops 7 will get early access to the Black Ops 7 beta, running October 2-5. Activision is also offering an open beta for all players, no pre-order required, from October 5 to 8. 

The beta includes all the multiplayer maps I fought across at Connect: The Forge, Exposure, Blackheart, Imprint, Toshin, and Cortext. It also packs the new Overload mode, as well as classics Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hard Point, Kill Confirmed, and Search and Destroy.

The beta goes beyond multiplayer to include Zombies, as well. Starting on October 3, you’ll be able to try the new Vandorn Farm map and Survival mode.

Black Ops 7 introduces numerous small yet highly targeted and meaningful changes to Black Ops 6’s foundation, while offering a substantial amount of new content across all its modes. 

But you don’t have to wait to see for yourself—check out all Treyarch and Raven have to offer this week in the open beta. The full game launches on November 14.